Opening the Aperture For and With Foreign Entrepreneurs

Showcase Presentation

Zonder is a real-world travel game where people can earn points and “level up” as they visit places like restaurants, parks and landmarks. It features a variety of unique leaderboards and hundreds of exciting travel challenges to complete. Players can keep track of their travel experiences automatically, without even having to take out their phone. 

Founder Harry Yang graduated from Michigan State University in 2010 with a degree in Supply Chain Management. While working in the Automotive industry for 7 years, he developed a love for traveling, going on over a dozen solo backpacking trips and meeting hundreds of other travelers. In 2018, Harry found a way to combine his traveling experiences with his decades-long passion for gaming to create the world’s first travel game.

Expert Panel: Opening the Aperture For and With Foreign Entrepreneurs

Foreign entrepreneurs are an untapped resource that can help grow our startup ecosystems. However, the barrier to entry is higher given the unique challenges foreign entrepreneurs face not only when they pursue building a startup from scratch but also when established startups want to recruit them. This panel will shed light on some of those challenges, resources available and success stories. 

Moderator

Soosmita Sinha’s professional experience spans public, private and non-profit sectors in several geographical locations, including Nigeria, the United States and Switzerland. Her passion for advancing universal access to healthcare and advocating for health worker rights led her to found the Health Law Institute (HLI), Geneva, Switzerland in December 2018. She is also a board member of the International Network for Health Workforce Educators (INHWE). Soosmita holds a Pharmacy degree from Ahmadu Bello University in (Zaria, Nigeria, and a JD from the University of Michigan.

Panel Experts

Ernestine Lyons manages Global Detroit’s Global Entrepreneur in Residence (Global EIR) program. Before joining Global Detroit, Ernestine served as a director of economic development and government relations for small business incubators, overseeing the expansion of entrepreneurship and small business development programs. She has also served on the staff in the Michigan Legislature, working closely with Lansing policymakers, and is a former city councilperson serving Harper Woods. In addition to graduating from Wayne State University, Ernestine has studied internationally in China, South Africa and Russia. Ernestine speaks four languages, including Russian and Mandarin Chinese, and has traveled to more than 20 countries.

Prashant Salla is the CEO of Goodhood, the Amazon-prime for your car that aims to revolutionize car maintenance by sending mechanics to your home to take care of all your car maintenance needs. Goodhood has raised ~ $5m so far from investors such as Bullish, Mucker Capital, Okapi VC & angels such as Netflix founder, Apartmentlist founder & more. Previously, Prashant worked in the automotive industry as an Engineer for 6 years after earning a master’s degree in automotive engineering. Growing up in Mumbai, India, Prashant worked as a mechanic for $100/month during the day, played poker to fund college while attending Engineering classes.

Suzanne Sukkar is a U.S. Business Immigration Attorney at the law firm of Dickinson Wright PLLC. Her practice focuses on global workforce mobility, employment-based sponsorship and visa matters, immigration audit and compliance for corporate and individual clients across a vast array of industries. Suzanne renders expert strategic and tactical counsel to a broad clientele base including visa matters for client’s employees at all levels of the corporate organizational structure, from the highest level executives, to the entry-level business professional, investors, extraordinary ability workers, outstanding researchers and professors, musicians, artists and athletes, and more. She developed a niche expertise in the area of E treaty trade and investor visas, consular processing, and start-up ventures. Through strategic planning and by offering creative solutions, she has assisted with the seamless transfer of numerous workers worldwide. She may be reached in our Ann Arbor office at 734.623.1694. 

Networking

Come join us in person to enjoy food and drink and conversation with members of the local startup community.

Remote Viewing

Portions of this meeting will also be available for viewing online via Zoom.  For remote viewing, select an Online Ticket when registering via Eventbrite once the link becomes available.

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